ERIE COUNTY, NY— Today, Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz issued this statement following last night’s rejection by the Civil Service Employees Association (“CSEA”) Local 815 of a tentative contract agreement negotiated between CSEA and Erie County:

“I am disappointed that this tentative agreement has been rejected, although the margin of defeat was much smaller than in past votes. Despite encouraging negotiations, this is the fourth time that a tentative agreement has been rejected by this bargaining unit, once under the prior administration and now three times with my administration. However, I will note that my administration has successfully completed contract negotiations with four of the five main bargaining units in Erie County: the New York State Nurses Association (“NYSNA”), the Sheriffs PBA Unit, Teamsters Local 264, and the CSEA Erie County Corrections Officers’ Unit. In the past two years all of these units have gotten new contracts, and it is my hope that the successes of these other negotiations will carry over into next steps with CSEA Local 815. I will be discussing next actions with Commissioner of Labor Relations David Palmer and others.”